Randall sets tone for U.S. team's winning attitude

As gold medal favorite in Sochi%2C Randall is changing the face of cross-country in the U.S.

Works with the non-profit %22Fast and Female%22 to keep young girls in sports

From an American perspective, cross-country skiing doesn't look like much fun. Compared to the hipsters on the halfpipe, some events yammer on like a boring uncle. Compared to the daredevils on the downhill, being the world's fastest cross-country skier sounds like an oxymoron.

When cross-country skiers cross the finish line after a 50- or 30-kilometer race, they collapse in exhaustion, faces contorted in agony. It doesn't look like fun.

Then along came Kikkan Randall. With a shock of hot pink hair, a sprinkle of glitter across her cheeks, Randall just might change the USA's perception of what a cross-country race looks like. As she heads into her fourth Winter Games, Randall, 31, could become the first American woman and second American in history to win an Olympic medal in the sport.

"The more fun we have, the faster we ski," Randall said.

Randall has helped lift a team with little history and less success. In 2007, she became the first U.S. woman to reach the podium in a World Cup event. Seven years later, she has 10 World Cup victories, is the defending World Cup sprint champion and is a world champion in the team sprint with Jessie Diggins.

"The expectations on the U.S. team have risen dramatically," Randall said. "We used to be excited when I got a top 30. Now top 30 is a mediocre day. The results of the young skiers have been fantastic. The whole thing is about patience and consistency, and every year the consistency comes up and up and up. They give me a run for my money, helping me improve."

Randall is a gold medal favorite in the individual sprint, the most fan-friendly event. With six skiers fighting it out on a narrow course, poles and skis often get tangled, leading to spills and crashes. The head-to-head action takes place in a loop, all visible to fans in a stadium. "NASCAR on toothpicks," is how teammate Andy Newell describes it. This, like Randall, might appeal to Americans tuning into cross-country for the first time.

"Her performance is really going to establish a unique legacy. For her, it's more than just about what she's accomplished," said Luke Bodensteiner, the executive vice president of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and a two-time cross-country Olympian.

"She is really determined to change the face of her sport in this country forever. She's done that with all her youth outreach."

When Randall speaks to school assemblies in Alaska, her home state, she arrives on a unicycle. "It's a side skill," she said of her circus tricks. Balancing on one wheel gives her instant credibility, and it commands the immediate attention of a room full of squirming grade-schoolers. Once she has that, Randall espouses the benefits of staying active.

Randall once dreamed of winning Olympic gold in alpine skiing, which is why she named her first unicycle "Picabo," after 1998 Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street. That was before she fell in love with the endurance, speed and power of cross-country, the sport in which her aunt and uncle, Betsy and Chris Haines, both Olympians, competed.

When Randall was growing up in Alaska, her parents fully embraced the state as an outdoor playground, with winters full of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Her name has skiing roots. Her dad, Ronn, wanted to name her Kikki, after Kiki Cutter, the first American skier, male or female, to win a race in a World Cup event, a slalom in 1968. Her mom, Deborah, preferred Meghan. They compromised on Kikkan.

Randall's husband, Jeff Ellis, competed in the sport for Canada and now works in marketing for its international governing body, a job that occasionally puts him in the spot of interviewing his wife after races.

"You head to Canada after these races," he said after one. "I hear you have a very good-looking Canadian husband."

In a sport overshadowed by the other disciplines, Randall has helped build interest in cross-country skiing in North America through the non-profit group Fast and Female, which aims to keep young girls in sports.

Some of those girls Randall inspired are now her teammates. "I still have a poster that she signed from 10 years ago when I was at junior nationals," Diggins said.

"Kikkan is the dream teammate," Liz Stephen said. "She shares every piece of knowledge that she gains with all of us. She wants nothing more than to see us succeed as much as she wants to succeed herself."

This team spirit isn't always the norm in skiing, largely an individual pursuit with veterans protective of their hard-earned knowledge. "We're always pushing each other to new levels and supporting each other," Diggins said. "You'll see at the end of a workout, we're high-fiving even though we have drool coming off our faces. This team is really there for each other. I think that's what helped us rise to that next step the last couple years."

The glitter has helped too.

Diggins is the team's Glitter Fairy. Before races she dusts sparkles across skiers' cheeks. "It reminds you that we do this because we love it," Randall said.

Though there will be pressure in Sochi, Randall embraces expectations by remembering just that. "It's super fun," she said.

And with that approach, pink hair and sparkles across her cheeks, all that glitters might lead to gold.